Stevi Quate’s career in education has spanned many years as a secondary teacher, service as State Literacy Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Education and a professor at University of Colorado at Denver.  She embodies that dictum that teachers of writing must also be writers themselves.  Her recent book, Clock Watchers (Heinemann), draws on all her experience and addresses what she and her co-author, John McDermott, felt was an essential and necessary focus of their teaching: “How can I motivate my students and then create a context that will engage them?”  Clock Watchers is their powerful answer to that question—a plan that gets kids to care about learning and truly engage with the curriculum.

Quate and McDermott apply the research on motivation and engagement to support increased achievement and improved attitudes about school, using a framework that:

• catches students’ interest across the content areas
• holds it through meaningful learning and valuable interactions
• uses assessment to create further opportunities to connect kids with content
• sustains it all with ideas for projects, activities, and even classroom routines and rituals.

The book has received positive reviews from educators who have used its ideas and strategies to address issues of motivation with a variety of students across the grade levels.  Congratulations to Stevi.